Experimental Ebola Serum May Be In Use On Americans

Ebola is a virus that in most cases very quickly brings the host to an extremely excruciating and horrific death. The incubation period can be up to 21 days so it can be carried all over the globe before there is any warning of spread. There is no known cure nor vaccine to combat it and it is out of control in west Africa.

Doctor Sheik Umar Khan who was leading the fight against it west Africa contracted it himself and died. Nurses in one town there went on strike after three nurses in their facility seemed to have died from it. Two Americans (one of whom is also a doctor) have contracted it there and, under very sterile conditions, are being brought back to the U.S.

There is a suspected case of it in New York to which the sick individual recently returned from a trip to west Africa.

The U.S. is supposed to be treating the Americans that are being brought back with an experimental serum.

Without an effective serum to combat it there might be a great need for isolation units and organ supporting equipment.

Replies to This Discussion

JOHN , I AM NEW TO THIS SITE , BUT , HAVE BEEN LOGICAL SINCE I WAS 12 . THIS EVENING , ON CNN , I SAW A DR SAYING HE HAD SURVIVED EBOLA USING ASPIRIN AND PRAYER . I WAS ANTICIPATING HIS REQUEST FOR MONEY , BUT, HE MUST DO THAT ON A WEBSITE , LIKE POPOV SELLING HIS HOLY SPRING WATER THAT BRINGS THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS TO THOSE WHO PURCHASE .

IT IS DISAPPOINTING THAT AN EDUCATED PERSON WOULD GRASP AT SUPERSTITION INSTEAD OF IF INVESTIGATING WHAT MAY BE A SUPERIOR IMMUNE SYSTEM OR GENETICS .

According to the World Health Organization the mortality rate for previous outbreaks has been 90%. The current outbreak might be associated with a weaker strain because the mortality rate for it appears lower. However, I heard on the news that the mortality rate for it might be higher than detected because a lot of cases are not being reported. In any case the mortality rate is still unnervingly high (well over 50%). Without a serum to combat it an epidemic in any country would substantially overload isolation units and organ supporting equipment. Per the article:

That jives with the numbers I've seen, as well ... pretty much exactly, actually. I saw an article that said that the mortality rate is somewhere between 50% and 90%, depending upon the strain.

At either extreme, those aren't the kind of numbers that should set people to pondering what made you survive, when others didn't ... unless of course you're part of the WHO team in charge of combating the current outbreak and trying to minimize future epidemics like this.

Having chronic leukemia and other problems, I would not survive infection with anything like ebola. Yet, I am planning a two week vacation in Southern Mexico this fall. I feel safer there than I do in the states.

I can understand that it might be safer in Mexico than the U.S. unless West Africa is going to be off limits to Americans. The death rate for Ebola is too high and there are no proven treatments for it. Some in the medical community are saying we should not use our experimental drug there:

AS of Friday (8-8-14) the World Health Organization has called the outbreak an international health emergency. Per the article:

The WHO move comes as US health authorities admitted on Thursday that Ebola's spread beyond west Africa was "inevitable", and after medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned that the deadly virus was now "out of control" with more than 60 outbreak hotspots.

As of this point in time there is a very limited supply of the experimental drug that the U.S. has developed to combat Ebola. It seems to be working where administered but none of it has been tried in West Africa. (Two Americans and a Spaniard have received it - All white but it would certainly be available to black Americans.) Given the limited supply the question at hand is that of whether any of it should be tried in West Africa. A concern in my mind is that of what might happen if the doses administered there are too small or not given for a long enough period of time. That is, under these circumstances might the virus develop an immunity to the drug. The U.N. called a meeting of experts today to help address the ethical implications of administering the drug. Per the article:

…. It would take months to produce the drug in any modest quantity…."There's no reason to try this medicine on sick white people and to ignore blacks," said Marcel Guilavogui, a pharmacist in Conakry, Guinea….The ethical questions posed by this situation have been so difficult that the U.N. health agency organized a teleconference Monday between about a dozen ethicists, infectious disease experts and patient representatives, including people from universities and the Doctors Without Borders group. Most of the participants are from developed countries, but Uganda and Senegal had people in the meeting. The World Health Organization said it would hold a news conference Tuesday, but didn't announce whether it would make recommendations for which Ebola patients should get experimental therapies, and how.

Today (8-12-14) the Secretary General of the UN called on the international community to fight Ebola in West Africa. Per the article:

UNITED NATIONS -- U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is pressing the international community to urgently respond to a shortage of doctors, nurses and equipment to stem the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Ban said at a news conference Tuesday that a coordinated global response is essential...."We need to avoid panic and fear," Ban said. "Ebola can be prevented."

The patient who was being treated for it in Spain died despite having been given the experimental drug that is available for it. He was, however, 75 years old.